Aschaffenburg

Aschaffenburg äshä´fənbo͝ork [key], city (1994 pop. 65,650), Bavaria, S central Germany, on the Main River. Its manufactures include clothing, machine and precision instruments, and colored paper. Once the location of a Roman garrison and later of a Frankish castle, Aschaffenburg passed to the archbishopric of Mainz in the 10th cent. The imperial diet met there in 1474. It changed hands several times during the Thirty Years War (1618–48) and was stormed in 1672 by the French marshal Henri Turenne. It passed to Bavaria in 1814. Noteworthy buildings include a 12th-century church and a 17th-century castle.